Icebreaker by Lian Tanner Read Free Book Online Page B

after all. Nor was it an imp.
    It was a girl.
    His mind raced. Should he reply or stay silent? What did the girl want? Was it a trick? A trap? Had Albie sent her?
    It seemed very likely.
    But surely, thought the boy, I can outwit a savage girl, no matter who sent her. Perhaps I can even persuade her to help me. It would be far quicker than trying to dig my way out through the rust  …
    â€œWhat do you want?” he said.
    â€œCome here,” whispered the girl. “Come close so we’re not yelling at each other. That guard of Albie’s has got sharp ears.”
    The boy crept back to the wall, trying to pinpoint the direction of her voice. “Where are you?”
    â€œNowhere,” whispered the girl.
    The boy put his eye to the hole he had made. There was nothing but darkness on the other side, and the oily stink of the ship’s crew. He supposed the girl must be standing in an unlit corridor.
    â€œWhat do you want?” he said again.
    â€œYour name for starters. Mine’s Petrel.”
    â€œI cannot tell you any more than I told Albie,” said the boy. “I do not remember my name.”
    He braced himself for an onslaught of questions, but instead, Petrel whispered, “I’m not surprised. It’s hard to remember anything when Albie’s shouting at you. He’s the worst shouter on the ship, worse than Orca even. Course, she doesn’t really shout. She just goes all quiet and nasty, but it feels like shouting, ’cos it pierces right through you and you end up feeling no bigger’n a shrimp.”
    Her husky voice was soothing, and the boy was still tired from his ordeal on the ice. But he knew better than to let down his guard.
    â€œCrab’s just as bad,” whispered the girl. “Only he’s all buttoned up and trim, even in midwinter, which is not a trim sort of time. Now Skua’s a shouter like his da. Lots of bluster and noise, only not so dangerous as Albie. You can get away from Skua if you’re tricksy enough, but hardly anyone gets away from Albie unless he feels like letting you go—what’s your name?”
    The question was thrown in so neatly that, if the boy had not been expecting some such ruse, he might have answered truthfully.
    But for all his tiredness, he was not fooled. With a sigh, he said, “I told you, I do not remember.”
    â€œThat’s the strangest thing I ever heard,” whispered Petrel. “ Why don’t you remember? Did the ice take it? Did it freeze inside your head and break into pieces? Did a gull swoop down and—”
    The boy interrupted her. “I do not know.”
    There was a moment’s silence, as if Petrel was thinking. Then she whispered, “What’s it like in the sky?”
    â€œ What? ”
    â€œIn the sky, where you come from. What’s it like?”
    For all the seriousness of his mission, the boy almost laughed out loud. How absurd these savages are, he thought. How ignorant!
    At the same time, this was an opportunity he could not afford to miss. He gathered his wits and whispered, “It is beautiful in the sky. The food is plentiful. Everyone has full bellies every day of the year—”
    A stifled groan from behind the wall.
    â€œIt is warm,” said the boy, “even in winter—”
    Another groan. The boy grinned nastily. I have hooked myself a fish. Now I shall reel it in.
    Aloud he said, “There is so much I wish to tell you. But … I cannot.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause I am a prisoner, and Albie has threatened to throw me overboard if I do not remember my name. How can I bear to think of my beautiful home in such circumstances?”
    â€œOh.”
    It was the smallest of sounds, but the disappointment in it was all that the boy could have wished.
    â€œOf course, if someone should free me from this cell,” he whispered, “I would be so grateful that I would tell her anything